Green Arrow/Black Canary #12Review

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Team Arrow works with the League of Assassins.

By Daniel Crown

From where I'm sitting, Mike Grell's Green Arrow is one of the most underrated series in DC's history. Though, keeping personal affections in mind, when the publishing company decided to reset the character of Oliver Queen with Kevin Smith's introduction to the title, I was mostly fine with it, mainly because he left Grell's creations alone. Grell's gritty, realistic stories completely contrast what is being done with the franchise today, so I've never been able to swallow the inclusion of characters such as Shadow or Eddie Fyers in the new, cornier Green Arrow canon. With the possible exception of Chuck Dixon, nobody has even come close to grasping what makes Grell's ancillary characters tick, this issue providing yet another perfect example.

The inclusion of Shadow in this particular plotline makes zero sense, other than to reintroduce Robert, or try to obtain some sort of shock value. This would be fine if it made sense, but in this case it doesn't. The whole veiled puppet-master scheme sharply contrasts Shadow's well-documented adherence to honor and duty. Winick's version of the character is far too weak and easily manipulated. After years of being under the control of forces greater than herself, Grell's Shadow would never let the same sort of slave dynamic take hold of her life again, even if that meant killing someone that she loves. I find it really hard to believe she wouldn't just handle things herself, even given the catch-22.

This series has been nothing but one contrivance after another. Seriously, how effective can a parade of changes be, when the status quo is never left at rest to begin with? There hasn't been a single Green Arrow story arc (within his flagship title) in the last two years, which didn't rely on some sort of faux pageantry. It's beyond tired at this point and beginning to border on the ridiculous.

I also want to know what's the deal with Conner Hawke becoming less and less ethnic with every passing year. During the Dixon years he was clearly ethnic (being a third black and a third Korean), then he seemed to morph into a Caucasian with a Hollywood caliber tan, and today he's become as lily-white as Ryan Seacrest. I don't know who did Conner's pigmentation surgery, but whoever it was, Michael Jackson really should have given the guy a ring back in the summer of 1979.

Green Arrow/Black Canary #12

Side-by-side with the League of Assassins, Team Arrow finds where Connor Hawke's been taken – but are they too late to save him?